After picking up forgotten cat food and stopping at the bank, I finally arrived at the Hynes at 11:45 am. Security directed me to the registration overflow room in Exhibit Hall B. On the way I passed two Sims, who where at the front of the line. The Hall was half full but that didn’t deter me. After all posts on the message boards mentioned waiting times ranging from non-exitent to a couple of hours. I plugged my headphones into my Sansa and listened to my AB playlist (consisting of songs from various anime, as well as songs performed by anime voice actors). Ahead of me was a young teen who was busily chatting away on her cell phone. Behind was a guy in his late twenties playing unknown versions of a variety of DS games. We were surrounded by numerous members from the cast of Naruto, which was apparently the unofficial anime of this year’s con.

Two and a half hours later I had finally reached the front door of the Hall. Chatty teen had been rescued by two of her friends and, I assume, moved ahead in line. She was “replaced” by a young adult male, who was obviously cosplaying, but hell if I could guess what anime he was from. From this point on I shall call him “Joe” because he looked remarkably like an online friend of mine by that name. He and some friends (who had the smarts to pre-register) had come down from Vermont to spend the weekend at the con. Joe had two friends come and visit him, one of them had the nickname of (if I remember correctly) Expendable Convention Member #1024. Ahead of Joe was a beautiful Botan whose picture did not come out. Ahead of her was a young woman dressed as a character from Naruto (I never watched the series so don’t ask). I only noticed her when she started belly aching to someone from security about how long she had already been waiting and how she was missing the voice actors whom she had come to the con to support. 20-something DS player was joined by one of his friends (ah the joys of cutting in line). My friend, Nikki, had come over from the pre-reg waiting area to talk to some other friends of hers, but I was unable to text her in time to get her to turn around. There was also an attempt at the wave, but halfway through the line in the Hall the ball got dropped.

During the next hour Joe and I watched cosplayers pass by as we inched our way to the front of the line. I got a picture of a guy dressed as Misty from Pokemon. He was equally scary and hilarious at the same time as he flirted with other male con goers. There was a trio extremly well done up as Link, Zelda and Sheik. Unfortunately my camera being as old as it is took forever to get to its ready state, so I missed it. 20-something was taking advantage of the oulets along the wall to charge his DS. Just before reaching the front of the line I caught sight of a Sanosuke from Rurouni Kenshin. He looked good, except for his hair. Instead of simply spiking it with some gel he clumped handfuls of it together, making him look like he had an accident with a tube of Nair. Ol’ Roosterhead would’ve been ashamed.

Finally at the front of the line, we eagerly awaited entering the registration room. Then we learned that the line continued on around the corner, around a second corner, down a one mile-long hall and back, down another mile long hall and back, and around one more corner before entering the registration area.

The next hour or so was spent holding places in line while we took advantage of the currently present restrooms. 20-something with DS and friend had somehow managed to sneak ahead in line by about ten people. My new rear flanker was a gentleman who was there with his disabled son, to whom he had literally offered $1000 to not come to the con. I think he was ready to throttle his son when he announced that he didn’t really mind missing all the panels while waiting in line because he would most likely be able to catch thin online on Youtube. We were also visted by another of Joe’s friends, who brought pizza for him and informed us that it would probably be another 4 hours before we were registered because AB “grossly underestimated the turnout” and they “only had four terminals available for registration”. At this point I gave up on making it to the panel with Brad Swaile.

Around the second corner I spotted the two Sims that had been at “the front” of the line when I arrived. They were on their way down the second hallway. Oh, and I lost The Game.

The trip down the first hallway wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been. We had benches to sit on, on one side at least. I was surrounded by DS users. Sadly none of them were playing Animal Crossing. About halfway down a group started singing “99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall”. They managed to complete the entire song without us moving once. Joe and I had made it to the end of the hall in about two hours. Well so much for my chance at meeting Brad Swaile at the autograph session.

By this time I was starving, not to mention dehydrated. Joe’s girlfriend, who had pre-registered, had joined him and the two were busy snogging so I really couldn’t ask them to hold my spot while I grabbed something to eat. I was tired, my body ached, and I snarled at a member of security who demanded I move my spasming legs out of the middle of the way. I was frantically trying to decide whether or not I should still get a three day pass given that all most of the panels I wanted to partake had already been missed. At the same time I wondered if a one day pass would still be worth it just to go to Nikki’s Hentai panel. I was defininately NOT going to bring Glenn with me if I decided to come back Saturday, nor was I going to make the Pre-teen endure this nonsense for a series viewing that may be over by the time he was registered. Someone started singing “The Song that Never Ends” but folks were so tired it ended after three rounds.

At 7:05pm my mind was made up for me. The Teen called, informing me he had (accidently) cut himself and couldn’t get the bleeding to stop. I had no choice but to leave. As I staggered up the hallway I realized I had deluded myself into thinking I would be registered before the area closed at 10pm.

I spent over 7 hours in line for naught. My body still aches immenesly despite it being more than 24 hours later. My Miracle Balls failed me.

Doing some final stuff in prep for Anime Boston. I had to make an emergency run to Best Buy after discovering my camera’s battery had suddenly ceased to keep a charge. That’s $43 out of my spending allowance for this weekend. I finally got MBTA.com to behave itself and (after much playing around with addresses and other settings) now have a travel itinerary. Yay! Hopefully arriving two hours early will allow me enough time to pick up a pass before the opening ceremonies. If not, then oh well. I am debating on whether to sneak out with the pre-teen Sunday morning to catch the showings of Hamtaro eps. He used to love doing the Ham Ham dance at the end of each episode.

In other news, I had forgone the uploading of last year’s show in Everett because we are scheduled to do this year’s show next week and I figured I could just upload the new show (that, and the fact that last year’s show didn’t contain much of the color guard despite it being a color guard/percussion competition). Alas, if we do the show at all, it won’t be anything like the Plymouth show which is what I was hoping for since I cannot seem to obtain a video of THAT show. Barry is having a cow over the fact that he has only three drummers. Never mind that we only have half the guard to work with. *sigh* Gee. I wonder where those rumors about the corps. folding could be coming from?

This weekend I’ll be attending Anime Boston. This will be my first convention. Sort of. My first was actually WBCN’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Convention, but that was like 25 years ago and my impression is that anime conventions are a whole lot different. If anyone has any tips or pointers they’d like to share, PLEASE feel free to do so!

Friday will definitely be the big day for me, what with BRAD SWAILE and my friends’ Hentai panel (according to the preliminary schedule). I told my friend, Nikki, she better cover Yaoi in this panel because I’ll have to forgo the actual Yaoi panel for hers. I’ll probably return Saturday but not so sure about Sunday. I’m supposed to be in Chelmsford that day.

I’ve got my Charlie Card loaded up with sufficient fundage to take public transportation in and back. I’m waiting for the MBTA site to stop being a bitch so I can verify my itinerary. I have my Gundam Wing art book set aside. My digital camera is charging. Is there anything I’m missing?

BTW, for f-list members who are also attending: I’m still the dreaded redhead… at least until the 29th.